Vigilantes have unlawfully prevented people they deemed to be foreign nationals from accessing public healthcare services. SECTION27 health activists map out the implications of a Gauteng High Court judgment delivered at the end of last year, explaining that it obliges the state to take active and coordinated steps to remove barriers hindering people’s access to healthcare.
Security guards at healthcare facilities in Nelson Mandela Bay went on strike in January when their salaries had not been paid. During the strike, healthcare workers had to close some clinics as they feared for their safety, and patients were left stranded. Luvuyo Mehlwana reports on what happened and asked the health authorities what plans are in place to prevent similar incidents amid persistent budget constraints.
Nosisi Jacobs from Langa in Cape Town is among the over 37 000 people in the Western Cape who have so far recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. Siyabonga Kamnqa spoke to her about her journey from diagnosis, to life under quarantine and finally recovery.
Many types of surgery are being delayed in South African hospitals. HIV and TB testing rates are down. Kathryn Cleary investigates the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on ‘normal’ healthcare in South Africa.
The latest Auditor-General’s (AG) report makes for grim reading regarding a number of provincial departments of health. Yet, there seems little hope that provincial legislatures will hold these departments to account and even less that the public will be kept informed of the activities of these legislatures.
Irregular expenditure by the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) in the 2018/19 financial year totalled almost R2,7 billion – the biggest chunk of the R3,03 billion the National Department of Health and all its entities incurred the past financial year.
